So. It’s been a while. I’ve been busy doing stuff. Cleaning, cooking, changing nappies, giving baths, reading stories, reading novels (okay a novel), visiting friends, visiting family, play-group, play-dates, lady-dates, bands, brunches, dinners and walks, picking up and dropping off, clocking on and clocking off. Wiping food off the floor. Washing. Oh and watching a spot of telly. Wentworth is my current addiction, since GOT finished and Mad Men is over (sniff). Don! I will always love you Don! Even though you will charm me then hurt me and make me cry I will still love you. Because Don. Wentworth is a great show. Gritty and Aussie and female. Great!

On top of all that, I’ve adopted a new hobby. French. Yes I’m learning French. Pourquoi, you ask? Well, since you asked......

WE’RE MOVING TO PARIS.

Joking not joking.

I’ll just write it a few more times.

WE’RE MOVING TO PARIS WE’RE MOVING TO PARIS WE’RE MOVING TO PARIS

It’s true. Not a word of a lie. My darling husby has been offered a job in the city of love and he said yes. WE said yes.

Pretty exciting huh? It’s one of those things that sounds amazing, a dream come true. And it is. But as amazing as it is, it’s little scary too. I have two little kids under 3. The flight alone is enough to scare the pants off me (remember my trip to Adelaide??), let alone leaving my little house surrounded by familiarity and friends and family. We will effectively be dismantling the life we’ve built for ourselves here in Melbourne, and setting up a new one in a foreign country where none of us can speak the language, know no-one and live in a tiny apartment with a cupboard-sized kitchen, no yard, no lift and 10 flights of stairs (double pram and a load of groceries, anyone? Anyone?!).

Ah but what about the Eiffel Tower you say. What about the museums and the coffee and the baguettes and the cheese you say? Well I say yes. WE say yes. Yes to the history, the art, berets and the stripey shirts and little moustaches (and clichés). Yes to new friends and new experiences. Yes to a challenge. And yes to the wine. Of course the wine.

I’m making a list of things to do. Please, if you happen to have moved yourself and your family to the other side of the world recently, help me out if I’ve forgotten anything.

· Resign (eeeeek).
· Passports.
Visas.
Flights.
Engage a real estate agent to rent the house out.
De-clutter house to make house more attractive.
Sort through cupboards: keep/store/sell/chuck/give.
Choose a relocation agent.
A removalist
A cleaner.
Recruit childcare assistance for flight (seriously).
Quotes quotes quotes.
Move in with the folks.
Sell car.
Cancel kid’s childcare and swimming lessons.
Leave my beloved swimming club.
Catch up and spend quality time with every one of our precious friends and family.
Take holiday bookings for friends and family who are saying they will visit us in France.
Price sofa beds.
Arrange leaving party.

* Do all of this in 6 weeks (ish).

Have you ever made a potentially life-changing decision like this one? How did it work out for you? Tell me all of it, the good and the frankly terrible.